My Neighbor Borrowed Money for a Year—Then I Received a Letter From Her Lawyer..

For twelve months, I lent my neighbor whatever she needed: sometimes $50, sometimes $100. When she moved away without a word, I believed her promises had meant nothing. Then I learned she had died of cancer. She had been ill throughout those months, struggling in ways she had never shared with me. In her will, she left me $15,000, along with a note: “You kept me alive when I had nothing. I saved every dollar I could to pay you back properly. Thank you for never making me feel small.”

I cried for a week. I had known so little about her life, yet those small loans had helped her through it. Her note changed what I remembered about the year we were neighbors. The disappointment was still part of it, but no longer the whole story. Now I also understood what my willingness to help had meant to her.